Convention  of  the  Diocese  of  N.C. 
1886 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 

Diocese  of  North  Carolina 


Cp233 
N87c3 


This  BOOK  may  be  kept  out  TWO  WEE 
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REPORT  OF  THE  GOIMITTEE 


D 


roposed  Changes 


BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER, 

A.  D.  1886. 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE 


CONVENTION  OF  THE  DIOCESE 


NORTH  CAROLINA 


Proposed  Changes  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 


A.  D.  1886. 


RALEIGH  : 
Edwards,  Broughton  &  Co.,  Power  Printers  and  Binders. 

1886. 


5  0 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE 

ON   THE 

PROPOSED  CHANGES 

IN   THE 

BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER, 

A.  D.  1886. 


The  Committee  on  the  Proposed  Changes  in  the  Prayer 
Book  respectfully  report:  That  they  have  given  much 
thought  to  the  very  important  subject  committed  to  them, 
both  in  private  study  and  in  joint  conference,  and  they  are 
happy  to  be  able  to  present  the  result  of  their  deliberations 
in  a  report  which  is  mainly  unanimpus. 

The  proposition  to  amend  and  improve  the  Prayer  Book 
comes  before  the  Dioceses  in  a  series  of  thirty  distinct  reso- 
lutions, and  we  therefore  determined  to  consider  each  reso- 
lution separately  and  act  upon  it. 

The  first  two  resolutions  relating  to  the  prefatory  orders 
and  tables  of  the  Prayer  Book  seem  to  be  entirely  "accept- 
able and  we  assent  to  them. 

The  third  resolution  relates  to  the  order  for  daily  morning 
prayer.  Here  we  all  found  much  to  approve  and  much  to 
dissent  from,  and  the  committee  was  equally  divided  in  its 
vote  upon  this  resolution.  There  is  here  ample  express 
provision  for  a  shortened  service,  and  there  is  certainly 
some  desirable  enrichment;  but  we  must  think  that  these 
are  gained  at  the  cost  of  serious  loss  to  the  holy  beauty 
and  the  perfect  structure  of  the  service. 

The  commission,  in  the  beginning  of  their  work,  laid 
down  as  a  fundamental  and  guiding  rule  that  they  would 


4  REPORT    ON    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER. 

conform  to  the  principles  which  had  been  observed  in  the 
framing  and  the  subsequent  revisions  of  the  English  Prayer 
Book.  Now  it  certainly  is  one  of  the  most  obvious  and 
striking  principles  observed  in  the  construction  of  our  ser- 
vices, that  they  begin  with  a  strain  of  penitence  and  lowly 
humiliation.  The  angels  veil  their  faces  when  they  go  into 
the  presence  of  the  most  Holy  God.  How  befitting  then  it 
is  that  sinful  men  should  so  do.  So  thought  our  Fathers  in 
the  Church,  and  our  service  opens  with  penitential  sentences 
from  the  word  of  God  ;  then  an  appropriate  exhortation 
based  upon  those  sentences  and  enforcing  them  on  the 
heart ;  then  the  lowly  confession  and  the  comforting  abso- 
lution. Thereupon  God's  children  having  confessed  their 
sins,  and  been  absolved,  with  filial  confidence  say  the  chil- 
dren's prayer  to  our  Father  in  Heaven,  and  then  calling 
upon  God  to  open  their  lips,  they  enter  on  the  higher  ser- 
vice of  praise.  It  is  the  proper  and  beautiful  overture  of 
public  worship,  and  an  exquisite  part  of  the  admirable  struc- 
ture of  our  service.  But  the  revised  book  well  nigh  does 
away  with  all  this.  It  greatly  multiplies  the  sentences  by 
adding  many  that  are  not  at  all  penitential,  and  it  fails  to 
require  that  any  penitential  sentence  shall  ever  be  used. 

It  authorizes  us  on  Christmas  day,  Easter  day  and  Whit 
Sunday,  and  on  every  other  day  except  the  Lord's  day,  and 
days  of  fasting  and  abstinence,  to  omit  the  exhortation 
and  confession,  and  go  at  once  to  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Our 
Fathers  in  the  Church  have  all  along  thought  that  even  on 
Easter  day,  christians  might  confess  their  sins  to  God  and 
be  absolved,  and  say  the  prayer  of  God's  children,  and  that 
then  and  thus  they  were  best  fitted  to  pour  forth  their  holy 
joy  in  the  exulting  strains  of  the  Easter  anthem.  But  our 
present  revisers  would  seem  to  have  been  framing  devotions 
for  the  church  triumphant,  and  not  for  the  church  militant, 
and  still  laboring  under  sore  trials  and  burdening  infirmities. 
This  erroneous  notion  of  the  unsuitableness  of  peniential 
confession  to  Almighty  God  at  a  time  of  holy  evangelic  joy 


REPORT    ON    BOOK     OF    COMMON    PRAYER.  5 

meets  us  everywhere  in  this  revision.  We  do  not  object  to 
shortened  services  at  proper  times,  but  they  should  be 
framed  without  marring  the  holy  beauty  and  disturbing  the 
orderly  structure  of  our  public  worship.  It  would  be  well 
at  times  to  use  the  bidding  call,  "  Let  us  humbly  confess 
our  sins  unto  Almighty  God,"  instead  of  the  longer  exhor- 
tation, and  we  could  as  happily  retain  the  gist  of  the  gen- 
eral confession  by  using  at  proper  times,  in  its  stead,  the 
Kyrie — the  triple  invocation,  "Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us! 
Christ  have  mercy  upon  us  !  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us  !" 
A  rubric  should  direct  that  whenever  the  service  is  to  begin 
with  the  Lord's  prayer,  it  should  be  prefaced  by  this  fer- 
vent penitential  invocation  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  each  clause 
being  said  in  unison  by  the  minister  and  the  people. 

The  new  alternate  absolution  of  this  service  lacks  the 
simplicity  and  the  rhythm  which  characterize  the  devotional 
forms  of  the  prayer  book.  A  better  form  could  be  framed 
from  one  of  our  exquisite  collects,  as  thus:  "The  merciful 
Lord  grant  you  pardon,  and  peace,  that  you  may  be 
cleansed  from  all  your  sins  and  serve  Him  with  the  quiet 
mind,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord."  It  is  a  great  gain 
to  have  the  integrity  of  the  Venite  restored,  but  the  people 
are  in  great  danger  of  being  robbed  again  of  the  precious 
gift  by  the  permission  to  omit  the  last  four  verses  on  every 
day  of  the  year  except  six;  and  why  are  we  forbidden  to 
say  the  Venite  on  Ash  Wednesday  and  during  Holy  Week? 
These  peculiar  rubrics  prefixed  to  the  Venite  are  evidently 
founded  on  the  wrong  view,  that  words  of  praise  to  Al- 
mighty God  are  not  appropriate  on  a  day  of  humiliation, 
and  that  on  a  day  of  holy  rejoicing,  no  words  of  solemn 
warning  must  be  heard  even  from  the  mouth  of  God  himself. 

The  Venite  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  most  authori- 
tative portions  of  the  service.  This  sublime  and  solemn 
invitatory  psalm  has,  from  the  beginning,  been  the  daily 
utterance  of  the  church  of  Christ,  and  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epis- 
tle to  the  Hebrews,  seems  to  allude  to  the  use  of  christians 


6  REPORT   ON   BOOK   OF   COMMON   PRAYER. 

in  their  daily  worship,  to  call  one  to  another,  "  To-day,  if 
ye  will  hear  His  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts." 

The  fourth  resolution,  comprising  the  order  for  daily  even- 
ing prayer,  is  on  the  whole  acceptable.  It  has,  however, 
some  of  the  same  defects,  and  needs  like  improvement  with 
the  morning  prayer. 

We  cannot  commend  for  acceptance  the  fifth  resolution, 
adding  to  the  book  of  common  prayer  the  form  called  the 
Beatitudes  of  the  Gospel.  There  might  be  a  beautiful  and 
edifying  service  founded  on  the  beatitudes.  Such,  indeed, 
there  are.  But  this  one  lacks  the  lively  fervor  and  the 
beauty  which  are  the  charm  of  all  our  present  services. 

We  would  accept  the  sixth  resolution,  comprising  a  few 
valuable  additions  to  the  Litany  and  its  rubrics  ;  the  seventh 
comprising  additional  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  upon  sev- 
eral occasions;  and  the  eighth,  a  penitential  office  for  Ash 
Wednesday. 

We  also  approve  of  the  service  in  the  ninth  resolution  for 
Thanksgiving  Day  or  Harvest  Home,  with  these  excep- 
tions: that  it  begins  without  an  act  of  penitence,  and  that 
its  prayers  are  closed  with  a  new  minor  benediction,  "The 
everlasting  Father,  bless  us  with  His  blessing,  everlasting," 
a  form  not  to  be  commended  either  for  its  matter  or  style, 
and  which  would  much  better  give  place  to  the  Apostolic 
and  Christian  benediction  which  closes  our  morning  and 
'evening  prayer. 

We  would  accept  the  service  in  the  tenth  resolution,  "  a 
short  office  of  prayer  for  sundry  occasions." 

In  the  eleventh  resolution,  relating  to  the  Collects,  Epistles 
and  Gospels,  we  approve  of  the  provision  for  two  celebra- 
tions at  Christmas,  Easter  and  Whit  Sunday,  and  the  service 
for  the  feast  of  the  Transfiguration,  but  we  cannot  admire 
the  new  collects  ;  they  are  for  the  most  part  wanting  in  the 
-grace  and  fervor  of  the  old,  and  we  see  no  reason  for  exclud- 
ing the  Lenten  collect  from  the  services  of  Holy  weeK. 
Lent  does  not  end   until  the  eve  of  Easter,  and    the    cry 


REPORT   ON   BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  7 

should  go  up  through  all  of  Lent,  "Create  and  make  in  us 
new  and  contrite  hearts,  that  we  may  obtain  of  Thee,  the 
God  of  all  mercy,  perfect  remission  and  forgiveness." 

In  the  twelfth  resolution,  relating  to  the  Order  for  the  Holy 
Communion,  we  strongly  object  to  the  proposed  change  of 
a  clause  in  the:  prayer  of  consecration.  The  clause  as  it  is, 
"  that  we  and  all  others  who  shall  be  partakers,"  is  far  bet- 
ter than  the  proposed  clause,  "  that  whosoever  shall  be  par- 
takers." The  prayer,  as  we  now  say  it,  is  more  personal  and. 
more  distinctly  intercessory. 

The  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  resolutions  contain' 
slight  but  valuable  emendations,  chiefly  in  the  rubrics,  of 
the  three  offices  for  the  public  baptism  of  infants,  the  pri- 
vate baptism  of  infants  and  the  baptism  of  such  as  are  of 
riper  years ;  but  it  is  a  lamentable  omission  on  the  part  of 
our  revisers  that  they  did  not  in  all  these  baptismal  offices 
restore  the  Apostles'  creed  to  its  place  in  the  second  of  the 
baptismal  vows.  They  have  introduced  it  in  the  answers  of 
the  confirmation  service  and,  a  fortiori,  it  should  be  in  Holy- 
Baptism,  the  sacrament  which  grafts  us  into  Christ  and  in 
which  the  covenant  of  pardon  and  salvation  through  Christ 
is  first  and  forever  enacted  between  God  and  us.  It  is  a- 
serious  blemish  in  the  baptismal  offices  of  the  American 
Church  that  they  require  not  an  explicit  confession  of  belief 
in  Christ  personally,  and  the  facts  of  His  work  of  redeem- 
ing love ;  but  only  an  abstract  declaration  of  belief  of  all  the 
articles  of  the  christian  faith  as  contained  in  the  Apostles' 
creed. 

In  the  sixteenth  resolution,  proposing  changes  in  the  order 
of  confirmation,  while  there  are  some  very  desirable  im- 
provements, there  are  also  serious  defects,,  and  this  pro- 
posed office  greatly  needs  revision.  The  reading  of  the 
preface  has  been  made  optional,  but  it  should  have  been 
removed  from  the  office  and  made  a  rubric.  In  the  circum- 
stances of  the  church  in  our  land,  where  a  very  large  pro^ 
portion  of  the  candidates   for  confirmation   are  adults-,,  fre.: 


8  REPORT    ON    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER. 

quently  very  aged  people,  many  of  them  not  brought  up  in 
the  church,  and  many  having  long  been  in  the  communion 
of  other  christian  bodies,  this  preface  is  often  extremely 
unsuitable. 

But  we  do  need  an  introduction  to  the  office,  and  we 
suggest  that  it  would  be  well  to  begin  it  with  some  such 
form  as  this,  to  be  said  by  the  Bishop  : 

"  Brethren,  we  are  taught  by  the  Word  of  God  and  the 
constant  practice  of  His  Church  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
baptized  believers  to  seek  the  strengthening  grace  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  through  the  laying  on  of  hands,  which  rite  is 
declared  in  Holy  Scripture  to  be  one  of  the  principles  of 
the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  part  of  the  foundation  of  the 
christian  life,  and  is  further  described  as  the  sealing  of  be- 
lievers with  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  which  is  the  earnest 
of  our  inheritance.  It  was  ever  administered  in  the  church, 
first,  by  the  Apostles  of  our  Lord,  and  then  by  their  suc- 
cessors, the  Bishops.  Therefore,  following  the  apostolic  ex- 
ample,.and  relying  upon  the  Divine  assistance,  we  proceed 
to  administer  this  ordinance  of  Christ." 

The  introduction  of  the  express  promises  of  baptism  is 
an  improvement  of  this  office,  or  would  be,  were  not  the 
use  of  this  valuable  addition  to  the  office  made  entirely  op- 
tional. 

Moreover  it  would  be  better,  instead  of  introducing  the 
old  question  and  answer  at  the  end  of  the  baptismal  spon- 
sions, to  condense  that  question  and  place  it  before  those 
promises,   thus:  ~^ 

"  Dost  thou  here  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  this  con- 
gregation renew  the  solemn  promise  and  vow  of  your  Bap- 
tism, ratifying  and  confirming  the  same?"     That  is  to  say: 

"  Dost  thou  renounce  the  Devil  and  all  his  works,"  etc. 

The  seventeenth  resolution  of  the  Form  of  Solemnization  of 
Matrimony  proposes  some  slight  changes  in  the  office.  But 
we  find  with  surprise  that  our  Revisors  neglected  their  op- 
portunity of  introducing  a  real  and  most  important  improve- 


REPORT   ON   BOOK    OF   COMMON   PRAYER.  9 

ment,  by  restoring  from  the  English  office  :  in  the  opening 
address,  the  allusion  to  the  first  institution  of  marriage  by 
God  in  Paradise,  and  to  the  teaching  of  the  word  of  God 
that  Holy  Matrimony  symbolizes  the  union  of  the  Heavenly 
Bridegroom  and  His  Bride  the  Church,  and  the  allusion  to 
the  presence  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  adorning  and  beautifying 
the  marriage  at  Cana,  and  also  restoring  the  beautiful  prayer 
of  the  English  service  which  commemorates  these  holy  sanc- 
tions of  christian  marriage. 

The  eighteenth  resolution  concerning  the  order  for  the  vis- 
itation of  the  sick,  the  nineteenth  of  the  communion  of  the 
sick,  the  twentieth  of  the  order  for  the  burial  of  the  dead, 
and  the  twenty-first  of  the  churching  of  women,  all  deserve 
to  be  cordially  accepted. 

The  tzventy-second  resolution  of  the  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be 
used  at  sea  is  approved  except  the  omission  of  the  first 
rubric  prescribing  the  use  of  the  morning  and  evening  ser- 
vice at  sea.  We  think  that  this  rubric  should  not  have  been 
omitted. 

The  eight  remaining  resolutions  of  the  Form  of  Prayer 
for  the  visitation  of  prisoners  ;  of  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be 
used  in  families  ;  of  Selections  of  Psalms,  and  Proper  Psalms ; 
of  Proper  Anthems  instead  of  the  Venite  ;  of  the  Psalter; 
of  the  Consecration  of  a  Church  or  Chapel ;  of  the  office  of 
Institution,  and  finally  of  the  Articles  of  Religion,  are  all 
approved. 

Your  Committee  have  thus  considered  the  resolutions 
seriatim,  in  view  of  the  possibility  that  the  General  Conven- 
tion may  so  consider  them  and  adopt  such  as  they  approve, 
reserving  others  for  future  action.  But  we  hope  that  may 
not  be  the  mode  of  proceeding  adopted  by  the  Convention. 
It  would  seem  to  require  an  immediate  change  in  the  new 
editions  of  the  prayer-book,  to  be  followed  at  frequent  in- 
tervals by  other  changes,  and  the  mind  of  the  church  would 
be  long  kept  in  a  disturbed  and  anxious  state  most  unfavor- 
able to  the  Church's  peace  and  growth.   It  would,  we  think, 

14 


IO  REPORT    ON    BOOK    OF    COMMON    PRAYER. 

be  far  better  to  refer  the  Book  to  a  new  Committee,  to  be 
carefully  reconsidered  and  then  to  pass  the  judgment  of 
two  General  Conventions,  of  which  possibly  the  approaching 
Convention  might  be  one. 

We  have  signified  our  willingness  to  accept  more  than 
half  of  the  resolutions;  but  there  is  hardly  one  of  them 
whose  proposed  changes  we  would  not  prefer  to  have  thus 
reconsidered.  The  Church  would  not  suffer,  but  in  the  end 
would  be  a  great  gainer  by  this  delay.  We  do  not  believe 
there  is  any  such  craving  for  a  revised  Prayer  Book  among 
the  people  of  the  Church  as  many  in  ourlast  General  Con- 
vention seemed  to  think  there  was.  On  the  contrary  we 
believe  that  a  large  majority  of  the  devout  members  of  the 
Church  are  perfectly  contented  with  their  old  Prayer  Book, 
and  are  troubled  and  anxious  lest  it  should  be  changed  for 
the  worse.  We  do  indeed  need  short  services  and  a  duly 
flexible  Prayer  Book,  in  our  new  mission  fields,  and  for  the 
daily  or  very  frequent  services  of  our  cities  and  large  towns. 
But  it  is  generally  acknowledged  that  the  clergy,  acting 
under  the  deliberate  and  united  judgment  of  our  Bishops, 
and  each  one  under  the  spiritual  authority  of  his  own 
Bishop,  and  also  acting  in  the  exercise  of  an  honest  and 
loyal  purpose,  and  of  good  common  sense,  already  have 
much  liberty  of  shortened  services,  and  of  judicious  adap- 
tation of  the  Prayer  Book  to  the  needs  of  the  people. 

We  fear  that  the  proposed  book  in  its  present  form,  with 
its  multiplied  and  very  explicit  rubrics  on  the  one  hand,  and 
with  its  free  and  broad  license  on  the  other  hand,  might  ren- 
der the  services  of  the  church  throughout  our  land,  very 
variable  and  dissonant,  and  often  very  disappointing  to  the 
people. 

Many  of  its  new  forms  of  devotion  are  quite  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  beautiful  forms  of  our  present  book.  They 
lack  the  simplicity,  unity  and  ever  pleasing  rhythm  of  our 
matchless  collects  of  prayer. 

It  is  remarkable  that  a  considerable  number  of  the  Bish- 


REPORT    ON   BOOK    OF   COMMON    PRAYER.  II 

ops  and  other  members  of  the  commission  which  first  framed 
the  book,  now  express  their  unwillingness  to  accept  it  in  its 
present  form. 

It  was  the  privilege  of  a  member  of  your  committee 
about  a  year  ago  to  spend  a  day  with  that  learned  and  holy 
christian  priest,  now  gone  to  paradise,  who  was  one  of  the 
most  able  and  competent  members  of  this  commission,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Harison,  of  the  Diocese  of  Albany.  On  that  occa- 
sion, Dr.  Harison  expressed  his  judgment  that  it  would  be 
unwise  to  accept  this  book  in  its  present  state,  for  it  con- 
tained much  crude  matter  not  at  all  in  harmony  with  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

Your  Committee  beg  leave  to  recommend  to  the  Conven- 
tion the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  Convention  of 
the  Diocese  of  North  Carolina,  that  the  Revised  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  now  proposed  to  the  church,  while  it  has 
many  good  features,  yet  has  so  many  defects  that  it  should 
not  be  now  accepted,  but  should  be  referred  to  another 
committee,  in  order  that  it  may,  if  possible,  be  rendered 
more  worthy  to  be  cordially  and  universally  accepted  by  the 
Church. 

(Signed)  D.  Hillhouse  Buel, 

W.  R.  Wetmore, 
Jos.  Blount  Cheshire,  Jr., 
B.  S.  Bronson, 
Richard  H.  Smith, 
John  Wilkes, 
John  S.  Henderson. 

The  report  was  accepted,  and  the  resolution  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  Convention. 


-He  1886.** 


0003401 31 TL 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


Form  No.  A-368,  Rev.  8/95 


